PALÆSTRA, in Grecian antiquity, a public building
where the youth exercised themselves in wrestling, run-
ning, playing at coits, and other feats of strength and skill.
To prevent the combatants from hurting themselves by
falling, the bottom of the palestra was covered with dust
or gravel. Some think that the palestra was only a part
of the gymnasium. Many authors also imagine that the
palestra was of two kinds, the one for the exercise of the
body, the other for the cultivation of the mind; but the
derivation of the word seems to confine it exclusively to
bodily exercise.